


Beyond Our Dreams

by thudworm



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [13]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Mutual Pining, thor loves soap operas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24892612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm
Summary: Apparently Hanahaki disease isn't a thing for Asgardians. Tony doesn't know if that makes it better or worse, since he's suffering it because of Asgardian.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Thor
Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619530
Comments: 2
Kudos: 157
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Beyond Our Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Beyond Our Dreams  
> Collaborator Name: @thudworm  
> Card Number: 3093  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24892612  
> Square Filled: R2- Hanahaki Disease  
> Ship/Main Pairing: Tony Stark/Thor   
> Rating: Teen  
> Major Tags: hanahaki disease, Thor loves soap operas, mutual pining  
> Summary: Apparently Hanahaki disease isn't a thing for Asgardians. Tony doesn't know if that makes it better or worse, since he's suffering it because of Asgardian.  
> Word Count: 1,523

There were no words to describe how much Tony wished he could be literally anywhere but here right now. 

It was bad enough he had developed Hanahaki. And up until now he’d done a good job at keeping it a secret, which was no mean feat given he shared a tower with the spy twins. Of course, Rhodey and Pepper knew about the flowers; after the palladium debacle he’d promised to tell them the next time something major like that was going on, but they didn’t know who it was Tony was pining after. 

Tony knew they had their suspicions focussed on Steve, which was not an unreasonable guess given Howard’s whole obsession thing. But they were wrong. 

It was a different big, buff blond who had managed to make himself at home in Tony’s heart. And who was now standing there, staring blankly at Tony as he coughed up the last few petals stuck at the back of his throat. 

“Hey big guy,” Tony greeted, then winced. He needed a glass of water.

“Are you well, my friend? What has happened?” Thor sounded so confused that Tony had to assume Asgardians weren’t at risk of being afflicted with Hanahaki. It was weird to think that what was a fact of life for humans, something everyone was aware of as possibly happening to them, just wasn’t a thing for other races. 

“I take it you’ve never heard of Hanahaki disease before?”

“Hanahaki,” Thor repeated. “No, it is not a term I have heard before. Nor have I encountered such a thing across any of the realms, until now. Have you been cursed?”

Great. That meant Tony would have to explain it to him. 

“Okay, so. Hanahaki disease. It’s not a curse, although there is speculation magic is involved somehow. I never paid much attention to it, mostly because I never thought it would happen to me. It’s rare, only something like one in a hundred thousand people ever have it. It starts out as just a few petals, then more and more at a time, until they end up coughing up entire flowers at a time.” Tony deliberately avoided mentioning just how bad it could get for a small fraction of Hanahaki sufferers. 

If he told Thor there was even a slight possibility of it progressing to the terminal stage, Tony had no doubt he'd be faced with well-intentioned, but irritating pressure to take the chance and confess his feelings to the person he was in love with. Which he wasn’t willing to do, or else he would have done it already. 

That was the reason he hadn’t told any of the other Avengers, or anyone at all apart from his two best friends. Because telling someone ‘if you don’t love me back I might die’ wasn’t exactly the epitome of romance, in Tony’s opinion. 

“It is a random illness?” Thor asked.

“Not exactly. It happens in response to ‘unrequited feelings of a romantic nature’,” Tony quoted from one of the many articles he had read when searching for a possible solution. 

“Most of the time it ends on its own. There’s all sorts of theories about why it fades out to nothing, and I don’t care much about the psychobabble, but I think the leading hypothesis is basically the pain of coughing up flowers becomes more associated with the object of affection than whatever was attractive about them in the first place. Operant conditioning in action. Or, y’know, there’s the happily ever after ending, where the love confession is met with an admission of mutual, and everything is sunshine and rainbows.”

Wow, that was snarky, even for him. Tony usually wasn’t so cynical, but the pain had him in an uncharitable mood. With the arc reactor lodged in his sternum, coughing up just a couple of petals was agony, and it would only get worse from there as the disease progressed. 

Tony was not looking forward to that, nor was he looking forward to the inevitable point where his feelings for Thor faded, either. It was a shitty catch-22 situation. 

Thor was still just watching him, not giving away what he thought about any of what Tony was saying. 

“I guess fate has a sense of irony,” Tony mused. “Me with Hanahaki. Back when I was living up to the playboy reputation, I had more than a couple of people who developed it in response to me. At least, that’s what they claimed when they were selling the story to the highest bidder. And now look at me. I guess it’s what I deserve.”

“I do not believe you should see this affliction as a punishment for your affection. Perhaps all is not as hopeless as you believe it to be with the person you desire.”

Tony didn’t snort dismissively at Thor’s words, but it was a close thing. He just hated the kicked-puppy look he knew would be Thor’s reaction. He knew that there was no chance that Thor would be saying that if he knew that he was the one Tony was in love with. 

-

Tony would have strong words (if he ever met them) for whoever was involved in designing the cultural education portion of Steve and Thor’s ‘guide to 21st Century America’. Because who in their right mind thought the soap opera ‘Beyond Our Dreams’ was an essential component of adapting to the modern world? Probably someone who took their chance when they saw it to spread the word of their favourite show. 

Tony had far better things to do than wasting half an hour of his life watching ridiculously overacted drama, but watching Thor watch his show was highly entertaining. Thor was always so invested, and he unabashedly shared his thoughts and feelings with anyone who cared to listen. 

Maybe if Tony had been paying more attention he would have seen what was coming in time to run to the other side of the country to avoid the awkwardness about to hit like a ton of bricks. On screen, one of the characters was delicately coughing up flowers (with much less hacking and splattering than Tony ever managed), before dramatically closing her eyes and going still. It was a standard over-the-top death scene for shows like this. 

The show cut to the end credits, but instead of his usual chatter Thor seemed disturbed by what had just happened on-screen. 

“Don’t worry about it too much, Thor,” Clint tried to comfort. “Give it a few months and Claudia will be back from the dead somehow. She’ll have secretly been in a coma or something.”

“No, it is not the passing of Claudia which concerns me as such. Rather, it is the manner of her death which bothers me. Tony explained to me this affliction, this Hanahaki. But he neglected to mention the fatal nature of the illness.”

Oh, this was not a conversation Tony wanted to be present for, but any attempt to escape down to his workshop would only call more attention to him. Then again, it would be worse if he lost the battle against that tell-tale tickle building in his throat. So far Thor was the only Avenger who knew, and Tony wanted to keep it that way. 

“Yeah, well. It is rare, but it does happen sometimes.”

“Sir, you have a conference call in 10 minutes to prepare for.” Saved by the JARVIS. He could have kissed JARVIS for the rescue, if he had a corporeal form to kiss, and Tony told him as much once he was safely hidden in the elevator. 

His retreat didn’t buy him as much time as he’d hoped it would, however. A few hours later Thor was at the workshop door, and he didn’t look like he was willing to take no for an answer when it came to talking about it. 

Tony reluctantly told JARVIS to let Thor in. 

“It pains me to know you have been in such discomfort and pain because of your affections. I have had my suspicions regarding who it is your affections are directed towards, though I did not wish to press the issue until you were ready. But that was before I realised it you were potentially risking your life.”

Tony sighed deeply. What was it with everyone trying to meddle in his personal business. “Look, whoever you suspect it is, you’re wrong. Because you wouldn’t be telling me to confess my feelings if you were right.”

“Are you truly so sure of that?”

Why couldn’t Thor just leave well enough alone. “Yes, okay. Yes, I’m sure.”

“So it is not me you are in love with, then?” Thor asked, and Tony froze like a deer in headlights. 

Thor was the one to make the first move. He leaned in slowly, giving Tony plenty of time to move away if this wasn’t what he wanted, and kissed him. 

For the first time in months Tony couldn’t feel the presence of the Hanahaki flowers lurking in his throat, threatening to choke him. It was a good feeling, but still not quite as amazing as knowing Thor felt the same way about him. 


End file.
